Saturday,
March 13, 2010
Spring Training
Q&A:
Twins Pitching
Prospect Jan Rehacek
·
FINAL REMINDER, Today is the Day! Today, the TWINSCENTRIC Viewing Party at Major’s Sports
Café in Apple Valley. All four TwinsCentric guys will
be there. Several other prominent Twins bloggers will be there as well. It will
start about noon (when the Twins/Phillies game starts) and will go until a
little after the game is complete. Prizes (including a Minnesota Twins 2010 Prospect Handbook, a Twins
2010 Annual, and even Twins tickets!) will be given away throughout
the afternoon. So, if you have a chance, stop by and it’ll be fun just talking
Twins with Twins fans!
·
Fanatic Jack hosted a special Friday
night edition of Twins Talk. He was joined by DW the Great (Twin-Keys)
and Andrew Kneeland (Twins Target) were his guests.
·
On
Saturday morning at 10:00 central time,
DW the Great will host his
podcast as well. TJ De Santis, the producer of The Show, will be one of his guests.
·
A
Huge Congratulations to friend of SethSpeaks, Phil Mackey, who left KFAN on Friday
morning and announced that he will be moving
to KSTP (which will soon be ESPN 1500). On March 23, he will join Patrick Reusse
on the air from noon to two. Mackey writes a blog at www.PhilMackey.com and runs the Minnesota
Poker Tour and Minnesota Poker Magazine. Mackey
joins Mr. Phunn Joe
Anderson and Doogie
Wolfson as
former KFAN guys to move to KSTP.
·
The
Twins minor leaguers will have their first practice on Saturday, weather
permitting. I learned last night that Trayvone Johnson,
who was drafted as a catcher just last June, has been moved to the mound
because of his great arm.
The Twins signed Jan Rehacek in
July and sent the 23 year old to the GCL Twins. The lefty from the Czech
Republic had been playing in Europe and pitching well. In just six innings with
the GCL Twins he allowed just two base runners and no runs. 2010 will be an
interesting season. He will be 24 years old, so you would want him to move up
quickly and yet, he would not even be eligible for the Rule 5 draft until after
the 2012 season, so they should allow him to slowly develop. I definitely want
to thank Jan for taking time to answer my questions. English is a language he
is very new to him as he speaks Czech, but I enjoyed his responses and
hopefully you will too. (To see all previous SethSpeaks.net Q&As, click here) (and feel free
to leave
questions or comments here)
…Let the Questions Begin!
SethSpeaks: Now that you’ve had a few months to look back and reflect,
what are your thoughts on your 2009 season?
Jan Rehacek: It was
great experience for me, because season 09 was my first professional season in
my career.
SethSpeaks: What do you do when you’re not playing baseball or
working out in preparation for the upcoming season?
Jan Rehacek: I´m
studying, enjoying life, time with my girlfriend and parents.
SethSpeaks: When did you start getting ready for the 2010 season, and
what was your routine?
Jan Rehacek: I´m
starting working out and preparing for upcoming season 1 month after my season
is over. My daily routine is gym, practice, running.
SethSpeaks: What are your goals
for the 2010 season? Where would you like to play, and are there any statistics
that you are looking to improve?
Jan
Rehacek: My
goals are be good, prepare for season, put everything
that I got to the game. And jump to the single A at least.
SethSpeaks: What does spring training mean for you, and what are you
looking forward to this year?
Jan Rehacek: It will be my first spring training, I´m pretty exciting
to see that great players.
SethSpeaks: Being from the Czech Republic, did you have a Favorite
Player or a favorite team?
Jan Rehacek: Of course
I have. For example: Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Funny is that they are not lefties:-)
SethSpeaks: How popular is baseball in your country?
Jan
Rehacek: It´s not that popular like football or ice hockey. But it´s quite good.
SethSpeaks: Tell us a little about your decision to sign with the
Twins. Were other teams talking to you too?
Jan
Rehacek: I had 6 offers from other teams. And Twins offer for me
sounds very trustworthy and was very straight to me.
SethSpeaks: Best thing of career in baseball?
Jan Rehacek: I think
that lot of people in the world are not satisfied what they doing, so I can be
glad that I´m playing baseball and also love what I´m doing. My life makes
sense.
SethSpeaks: Toughest thing of career in baseball?
Jan Rehacek: I think,
be(ing) ready every time when coach give you a chance
to play.
SethSpeaks: What would it mean to make your big league debut?
Jan Rehacek: Finally fulfill my dream.
Thank you very much to Jan Rehacek for
taking some of his time to respond. With English as his second language, I
really appreciate his willingness and effort in answering my questions. If you
would like, you can e-mail me,
or feel free to leave
your comments here.